| From an Associated Press article, March 7
WASHINGTON - California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, at a press conference on legislation to curtail food warning labels, used an expletive to refer to one of the bill's sponsors.
The remark was in reference to Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., whose bill would stop states from putting warning labels on food that are different from federal warnings.
Lockyer read a quote from Rogers in which the congressman said a pregnant shopper in Michigan should see the same warning while buying peas as a pregnant shopper in California.
"What a dumbs---," Lockyer said.
"Sorry," he quickly added, to laughter from the room, including a half-dozen other attorneys general. "But anyhow. All my colleagues disassociate with that remark."
Lockyer added that perhaps he should have called Rogers a "pea brain" instead.
He called the bill "extremely dangerous," adding that it would take from California women "the right they have to information that helps them protect their health and the health of their children because women in other states do not have that right."
and this from the Daily Argus, March 8th.
Warnings about mercury in fish, arsenic in water and pesticides on fruit and vegetables could be severely restricted under a bill proposed by U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, according to 37 state attorneys general.
Rogers, a Republican, maintains that H.R. 4167 seeks to strengthen food labeling by requiring uniformity from state to state.
While the debate pits state regulators against Congress, it also has put two top Michigan Republicans on opposite sides of the debate — state Attorney General Mike Cox signed a letter urging opposition to Rogers' bill. |
